Wood fiber has been used in the manufacture of paper and packaging since the mid 1800's. Although wood fiber continues to offer valued performance characteristics, its poor environmental profile had led to the search for alternative fibers to at least partially replace the wood fiber. Various non-wood fibers have been suggested, including sugar cane, bagasse, wheat and rice straws, bamboo, cotton stalks, banana leaves, fig leaves, reed, amur grass, and kenaf.
The citrus family is a large and diverse family of flowering plants. Common varieties of citrus fruit include oranges, grapefruits, lemons, and limes. The fruit is considered to be a specialized type of berry, characterized by a leathery peel and a fleshy interior containing multiple sections filled with fluid-filled sacs. Citrus fruits contain pectin, a gel-forming polysaccharide common in fruits, but found in particularly high concentration in citrus fruit.
Selected varieties of citrus fruit, including the sweet orange and the grapefruit, are processed commercially to provide juice and sections. About 45 to 60 percent of their weight remains post-processing, in the form of peel, rag and seeds. The by-product volume is significant; Florida's citrus processing plants alone produce 5 million tons of wet citrus by-product annually. The high water content and perishable nature of wet citrus by-product typically limits its potential usefulness to applications in close physical proximity to the processing plant. The most common commercial use of fruit by-product is dried citrus pellets, which is commonly used as animal feed.